Saturday, 30 August 2008

Where Are They Now? - No.2 Matthew Waterhouse

Matthew Waterhouse (born in 1961 in Heresford, England) is a British actor best known for his role as Adric in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. After leaving the series, he began a stage career.

Adric was a companion of Tom Baker and Peter Davison's Doctors from 1980 to 1982. Waterhouse was the youngest male actor to play a companion. He is also the first 'Doctor Who Fan' to join the cast of the show! In 2006, Waterhouse self-published his debut novel, Fates, Flowers:A Comedy Of New York.

Waterhouse returned to the sphere of Doctor Who and took part in the audio commentaries for the DVD releases of Earthshock and The Visitation released in 2003 and 2004 respectively. He also provided commentary for The Keeper of Traken, released in 2007 as part of the New Beginnings box set. Though released separately, all commentaries were recorded in the same week, as noted by Waterhouse in his commentary forThe Keeper of Traken.

In 1996 he made the science fiction pilot drama Ghostlands for MJTV Productions, and played the character Tom, alongside actors Sylvester McCoy and Jacqueline Pearce.

Waterhouse's name was used by comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams for a character in their sketch show Little Britain. Waterhouse in the programme is an unsuccessful inventor of bizarre and ridiculous new versions of things such as board games and breakfast cereals. Little Britain has also featured two other characters named after Doctor Who companion actors, Michael Craze and Mark Strickson, while the actual programme is, of course, narrated by none other than Tom Baker.

Waterhouse has lived in Connecticut, in the United States, since July 1998 with his partner who he met a Doctor Who convention.